Belton Park Golf Club raises funds for men’s mental health charity

Belton Park Golf Club hosted the annual Colin Elstone Christmas Charity AM-AM on Saturday which has raised many thousands of pounds for a variety of charities for more than 40 years.

This year was no different with bhive.community being newly installed captain David Brighton’s chosen benefactor.

Having visited the Grantham based men’s mental health charity on numerous occasions, David spoke about his passion for the work the charity does and how beneficial the funds raised will be.

Torrential rain welcomed the players with quite a few reluctant to venture out but the show must go on and getting wet wasn’t going to stop Belton Parks hardy members making the day a success.

With all the recent rain flooding areas of the Belton Park estate, the green staff - headed by Lee Carratt - hastily created an 18-hole composite course to enable the event to go ahead.

Fortunately, after a couple of hours, the rain subsided which allowed most people to dry out in the 30mph-plus winds that replaced the rain.

Before the presentation, there was a small auction comprising of four lots, golf for four at Torksey, Luffenham Heath, Sherwood Forest and Hunstanton Golf Club.

With all venues being well renowned, the newly introduced auction contributed more than £1,000 to the final total.

Event organiser John Kirkup extended his gratitude to the individuals who made this happen.

Jack Diment (Luffenham), Simon Williams (Sherwood), Chris White (Hunstanton) and Louis Booth (Torksey), who are all managers at their relevant clubs, contributed significantly with their generosity.

There were 10 prizes up for grabs at the presentation and the top five results from the two from four format saw Alex Garment, Ian Carroll, Mark Loveridge and Alistair Holmes take top spot with 94 points.

Spike Carr, Derek Bashford, Steve Preston and John Henson were runners-up with 88 points, one ahead of Andy Macgowan, Paul Selby, Dale Maplethorpe and Nick Binz who finished third.

Ricky Bellet, Dave Carter, Paul Adams and Alwyn Marshall finished fourth on 86 points as they pipped Adrian Allen, Bob Dhadli, John McClelland and Nick Bristow on countback.

Martin Clarke and Dish Patel won the nearest the pin prizes.

This was Belton Park's club captain David Brighton's first official engagement after recently being installed at the club's annual meeting in November.

He thanked all the members' generosity, plus organiser John Kirkup and his team in helping to raise £2810 for his chosen charity.

In his closing words, John Kirkup expressed his gratitude to all involved to get the event over the line, especially the members that played in the less than favourable conditions to raise the record-breaking final total.